I'm teaching a video blogging and podcasting class this month at VCAM and I started a new blog as a demo site yesterday and I think I'm going to keep it.  I've been meaning to set up a site for all of the various students I have (VCAM, CCV, BHS, etc.) to congregate, discuss filmmaking and new media, and to get inspired. 

The blog is called Pictures & Sounds and can be found here.  It's a Blogger blog.  I haven't really used Blogger since we stopped doing the Friday Coffeeblogging podcast and it's really improved since then.  I had fun staying up late last night and designing the custom header.  Check it out...



Between my Photoshopping jags last night, I was also dealing with pain-in-my-ass design issues with Candleblog -- particularly in Safari and the new Firefox 3.  For now, I recommend viewing Candleblog in FF2 (there is also an interface issue in FF3 involving hotlinking in posts, so I'm doing all my blogging in FF2 until I can resolve these problems).

I'm noticing that every year around Daysie time I wind up having serious technical headaches.  I think people vote for me out of sympathy.  :-J 

The title of this post was swiped from Gerry Canavan.  The Boston Globe's Big Picture has some amazing photos of the devastation in Iowa...



 

Messner, Messner. 

I'm dealing with some design issues today.  Please excuse odd changes to Candleblog's appearance.  Just keep smiling like Messner... 

As of today I am no longer robbing the cradle.  Emily and I are now both in our thirties.  Happy birthday, Emily!



I'm getting her an autographed DVD box set of Meteorologist Tom Messner's Greatest Forecasts.  I think she'll love it! 

That is Tom Arnold kissing the sweaty head of my friend, fellow high school classmate, occasional Pants keyboardist, and film sound engineer, Dan Mazur.  That's Full House star Candace Cameron Bure on the other side of Mazur.  They just wrapped production on a Hallmark Channel shoot called Moonlight and Mistletoe.  Mazur writes...

"Hottest shoot EVER with incidents ranging from paranoid schizophrenic homeowners (our primary interior location) to a gun-wielding suicidal divorcee who caused the town to be locked down and a swat team was brought in next to our production office."

Well meteorologist Tom Messner says things are going to cool down this week so Mazur should be able to recover from his ordeal nicely. 

...and I'm like, Messner!? I hardly know 'er!

via RCS. 

Yes, it's Daysie time again.  I'm only going to do two shameless please-vote-for-me posts -- this one, and one more shortly before the June 27th voting deadline.  As with last year, in order for your vote to count, you must fill out at least 1/3 of the 100-question ballot -- so you can't just click through and vote for just the blogs.  I won't tell you how to vote in 33 categories, but I will gently suggest a few possibilities in a few of the categories -- specifically those that you can click to and judge for yourselves.  These are just my recommendations... I'm not offering any bribes or sexual favors (that you know of) in exchange for votes (nor have I [yet] received such compensation for my pimping votes on behalf of others).



First up, I do hope you vote for Candleblog in the Best Vermont (non-political) Blog category.  Please note that you need to type or paste in the complete url, which is: "http://candleboy.com/candleblog/."  If you don't want to vote for Candleblog, might I suggest another fine non-political blog like Undead Molly or S.R. Wild's blog?  Both are examples of outstanding non-political Vermont blogs, IMHO.  There are many others as well.  Just peruse the "blog friends" blogroll on the right for some great options.

In the Best Vermont (political) Blog category, I do strongly endorse last year's winner, Vermont Daily Briefing.  Philip is witty and insightful and his blog is fun to read and even occasionally informative!  In the past I've pimped my good friend NTodd's excellent blog, Dohiyi Mir, and I've been sorely tempted to vote for The Carpetbagger Report, both because it's a great political blog and because Steve is a good friend, but the fact is neither NTodd nor Steve do very much blogging about Vermont politics -- they mainly focus on the national scene (or the hyper-local scene of household pets in NTodd's case).  Philip blogs about national politics too, but he cuts his blog with a healthy dose of Vermont.  It's that Vermont perspective that makes VDB a great choice in this category.  Now Philip just needs to open a comments section already.

Some other suggestions...

Best Visual Artist: I've got to go with EITHER S.R. Wild or Flameape himself, Gregory Giordano.  Both are under appreciated in this burg and fantastically talented.  Click through and see for yoursleves.

Best Craftsperson: It should come as no surprise that I think that Crafty Hedgehog, Emily Stoneking, is deserving of this award.  Her knitted dissected frog was featured on BoingBoing and had its 15 minutes of viral fame, her stained glass work is wonderful and all of her other knitted creatures and crafty creations are teh awesome.  She's considering making knitted portraits of assassinated presidents -- how cool is that???

Back in the media section, if you're wondering which spot on the dial you'll favor with a vote in the Best Radio Station category, look no further than the brand spanking new low power community radio station, The Radiator -- WOMM-LP. 

And finally, do you really even need to think about who the Best Meteorologist is?  Step aside Mark Breen, meteorologist Tom Messner's weather kung fu is strong!

Click here to vote. 

Brian Wood is a comics writer & illustrator whose work includes the critically acclaimed DMZ and Warren Ellis' Global Frequency, as well as illustration work for Rockstar games.  Lately he's been writing Local for Oni Press.  The last issue of the 12-part series came out today and it's set in Vermont.  Wood was born and raised in Essex Jct.  My friend Brad emailed me to let me know about the book.  I'm looking forward to reading it, but I just got off the phone with the local comic shop (the one that I managed in the 1990s) and they only got two copies of the book -- not even enough for the staff there to buy.  I put my name on the reorder list so I might get one next week.  Check it out if you can find it!

Brad writes...

"Each issue centers around a specific city, chronicling the life of main
character Meghan as she moves to (or through) each place.  Lots of familiar
locations (for the locals, of course) are illustrated throughout each story
by series artist Ryan Kelly.

The final issue, #12, appropriately enough takes place in Burlington and
elsewhere in Vermont.  I've seen some preview art and the Church St. stuff
is dead on."


No word yet on whether meteorologist Tom Messner is portrayed in the book.

 

I had to shut down all of the electronic equipment at VCAM twice already today to protect it from electrical storm activity and I might have to do it again if this weather keeps up.  Meteorologist Tom Messner would say there is a cold front moving across the region resulting in an area of low pressure and an instable air mass, causing heavy rain, high winds, lightning, hail and possible tornadoes.  I would describe this weather as "biblical."

The sunset was un-fucking-believable.  Pure golden glowy amazingness.  An hour before that, the sky turned pale green, and low, bruised clouds swirled about each other just like they do in all of those storm chaser shows on the Weather Channel.

The power is still on for now.